How many of your mistakes can your business stand?

How many of your mistakes can your business stand?
For over 15 years now I have been a member of an
"entrepreneurs" category registered in the local
government. I'm the owner of two companies. In fact, one of
them has already been dissolved. Now I'm just sitting and
reading. I have a lot of time for chatting on the Web and
relating discussed matters to my own situation. What did I
do wrong while running the first company? I committed all
the mistakes I could. Indeed, I've learned something from
my mistakes. When I was running the second company, there
were fewer mistakes. But it doesn't mean that I did it
intentionally. No way, my dear reader!

I've managed to avoid committing a few blunders, because I
completely changed the line of business and the target
group. However, it doesn't mean that we won't have any
obstacles, competitors, or problems connected with our lack
of competence or our lack of knowledge.

You probably want to know what mistakes I made. These are
the crucial ones:

I was running after customers. Despite the fact that I was
learning how to attract them from experts I could hire at
the time, I had enough after some time. I couldn't look at
the phone, I didn't want to go to presentations. I was
disappointed with the result of my shifting from getting
involved to gaining profits. I didn't like it.
Unfortunately, I didn't even think that I was doing
something wrong. I thought I was hopeless and that it
wasn't for me. And such an approach, as you probably know,
disheartens completely.

I had neither a vision nor strategic or tactical goals. I
walked blindly, grasped any opportunity and felt more and
more exhausted. A rush of adrenaline became weaker after
each grasp of opportunity. Autohypnotical arousal of
motivation and enthusiasm gave poorer and poorer effects.

I didn't know what it meant to focus on a customer? In
principle, I tried to separate private problems from
customer problems. I've already written about the words
like 'I'm trying' or 'I will try'. That time I didn't know
that it was another nail in the coffin of my business.

I had NO knowledge about advertising, not to mention
copywriting skills. In the second company I only proved to
myself that advertisements in the press were useless. 100%
waste of money.

I had no idea what it meant to delegate obligations. You
can understand now that I slogged away like a horse but
constantly in the wrong place, in a place where I could do
nothing for the company's development. Primo: I didn't know
the right places. Secundo: I dealt with patching holes,
extinguishing fires, and I couldn't remember my name in the
evening. Even when the company was hiring employees, I was
bottling up my rage, because I was working like a horse to
pay them and they were slacking off instead. I didn't think
so about all the employees. Some of them did their job,
about which till this day I know nothing about and which
I'll never be able to do myself. I was thinking about those
who did the same job as me. It looked like I had been doing
everything myself and they were wrangling over who would
pick up the phone from a customer. This was my fault and
lack of knowledge. I was the boss!

I didn't have a web site that would help me earn money. It
doesn't mean that I didn't have a web page. I have had one
for over seven years, indeed. I had no idea about earning
money via the Internet and I didn't have the foggiest idea
that I could arrange my web page in a way that would bring
me profits. You're a witness of changes in my consciousness
and knowledge which I'm widening. You're a witness of the
progress I make in its implication. I'll tell you something
about the effects of it.

Now I'll tell you the most important thing, which I would
like you to pay attention to.

Stop learning from your own mistakes, stop learning from my
mistakes. It may turn out that before you and me figure out
that we're making mistakes, it can be too late for our
companies. We can start everything from scratch, if we are
able to get up together after a fall. I just want to ask
you: what for? To make it hurt even more next time?

You and me, we can't afford to waste valuable time. Life
can be arranged according to the great scenario. The best
you can imagine. It's enough to use the help of those who
know how to avoid mistakes and are able to teach you how to
do that effectively. Your task is just to want to take this
help, to pay for it and to apply the pieces of advice
scrupulously and systematically. Can you imagine that those
pieces of advice are simple, logical and understandable for
everyone? Do you want to know where the catch is, or
perhaps a few catches? They are in your conviction that it
can't be that easy! They are in your conception that
business is a very complex machine and you have to know a
lot to make it bring profits. I'm telling you now that you
don't have to know everything. There are some creatures
that we call Experts. You just need your own wisdom and
knowledge of how to use their help.

Only you can answer the question: how many of your mistakes
can your business stand?

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